Congress
The Presidency
Lee’s (2016) argument re: cause of congressional polarization?
Competition for control of the chamber reduces incentive to cooperate.
Why is being in the majority good, other than passing bills?
Control of committees, status, gatekeeping
How to “clarify the partisan choice”?
Develop proposals that a) poll well; b) unite the minority party; and c) divide the majority party
“Messaging bill”?
A bill intended to make the opposing party look bad / show that you need more power to get good things done, rather than to become law itself.
Expected turnover among congressional staff (+/- 10 pp)?
65%
Collective action problems re: congressional “brain drain”?
Multiple possible correct answers, here’s what I thought of:
What is power?
The president exercises power, with limits, in all three ways.
“…the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” - John Adams
Heads of executive departments (will talk about them more next week)
Not many specifics in Constitution:
Armed Forces
Appointments
Veto
Convening Congress
Used sparingly for agenda setting
Trade agreements and diplomacy
Pardon/commutation/reprieve
“Take Care” clause
Executive privilege
George Washington in the background made some of these debates easier
Key features of Washington’s presidency:
Still,
Having a broadly popular general around to hand executive authority over to is a double-edged sword
No rule against Washington getting re-elected every four years for the rest of his life…and yet!
Washington’s farewell address: parties are bad.1
“They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community.”
“They are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people….”
Well then.
Adams and Jefferson were good friends, but their campaigns against each other (1796 and 1800) were nasty
1796:
1800:
But when Jefferson won, Adams packed up and went home.
Early articulation of the “imperial” presidency:
Structural changes:
Expansion of presidential powers:
Presidency during crisis:
Claimed inherent power to do all of this. Supreme Court ruled otherwise after it no longer mattered.
Great Depression:
Zooming in on the Executive Office of the President…
World War II and aftermath:
Result: President takes on bigger role as national leader:
Eisenhower’s farewell warning:
“American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions.”
“Now this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience…In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex.”
Neustadt: “Presidents have very little formal power, far less than necessary to meet the enormous expectations heaped on them during the modern era.” And yet, the president sure looks extremely powerful.
What’s going on here?
Neustadt: “presidential power is the power to persuade.” What do they mean?
Informal power, however expansive, can only be exercised informally.
“He’ll say, ‘Do this! Do that!’ And nothing will happen. Poor Ike – it won’t be a bit like the Army.” - Truman
A key implication from Neustadt: Presidential power is weakest when it is most observable.
Let’s take a second to talk about this.
Indirect exercise of power: directing attention to an issue by talking about it
President can set the agenda
When the president talks about an issue…
Dynamics that affect the president’s power to set the agenda?
Origins of pardon power:
That hasn’t happened, but something related has.
Voters can sanction.
Tradeoff Congress faces with delegation?
How do executive orders differ from laws?
Three formal procedures Presidents can use to influence laws without vetoing them?
Partial credit for veto threat (not formal)
Necessary conditions for presidential orders to be “self-executing”?
Why are “self-executing” orders a last resort?
Costly and typically only necessary when lighter efforts of persuasion have failed
Eisenhower’s tradeoffs between technological progress and democracy?
A lot’s changed since 1960.
Expanded scope of federal government + “take care” clause = broad discretion
Examples?
Unitary executive theory: because Constitution makes president Commander in Chief, they can…
Recent tensions between president and Congress (Libya 2011, Syria 2012-2017, Yemen 2018-2019, Iran 2020)
Defense Production Act (1950)
President can invoke DPA to…
Allowed for federal response to COVID-19 prior to legislation
Who can tell me what the debt ceiling is?
Statute that sets a cap on how much the government is allowed to borrow in order to meet existing obligations.
Legal and practical tensions.
If U.S. defaults on debt, global economy crashes.
1788-1917: No debt ceiling. Treasury bonds authorized individually by statute.
1917 (during WWI): Second Liberty Bond Act
1939-1941: Public Debts Acts (amended through the 50s)
1950s-1974: Debt ceiling increases used as opportunity to debate budgetary priorities
Between 1979-1995, “Gephardt Rule” automatically raised debt ceiling when budget passed.
Between 1995-2010ish, periodic increases a norm.
More recently (beginning 2011), debt ceiling used as leverage to negotiate policy concessions from president. Why?
So here’s the tension:
What can the president do when Congress authorizes less spending than it has mandated?
President’s options without increase:
So far, debt ceiling standoffs (2011, 2013, 2021, 2023) have resulted in deals with Congress.
But (Democratic) presidents have faced increasing pressure to act unilaterally.
Unclear how that would resolve.
Let’s consider this in spatial terms (from Howell and Moe)…
Where do these policies land if Congress moves first? What if the president moves first?
Let’s consider this in spatial terms…
Why might the president consider moving first a last resort?
Laws are “sticky,” executive orders can be undone.
Divide into groups of five. I’ll give you a modern president.
Go to https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/advanced-search
Prepare to share with class: